Jules de Koenigswarter

Baron Jules Adolphe de Kœnigswarter (also Königswarter) (7 March 1904 – 15 February 1995), was a French soldier and diplomat of Jewish descent.[1]

Jules de Koenigswarter
French Ambassador to Peru
In office
April 1961 – 1966
French Ambassador to Indonesia
In office
July 1957 – 1959
Personal details
Born
Jules Adolphe de Kœnigswarter

(1904-03-07)7 March 1904
Paris, France
Died15 February 1995(1995-02-15) (aged 90)
Málaga, Spain
NationalityFrench
Spouse(s)
Nadine Lise Raphäel
​
​
(m. 1930; died 1932)​

​
​
(m. 1935; div. 1956)​

Madeleine Le Forestier
​
​
(m. after 1956)​
ParentsLouis de Koenigswarter
Jeanne Thècle Kauffmann
Alma materÉcole des Mines de Paris
OccupationCivil engineer, diplomat
AwardsCroix de Guerre
Order of Liberation
Légion d'honneur

Early life
Coat of arms of the Königswarter family

Koenigswarter was born on 7 March 1904 at 22 Rue Galilée in Paris into a large and prominent Königswarter family.[2] He was the son of French banker Baron Louis Léon de Koenigswarter (1870–1931) and Jeanne Thècle (née Kauffmann) de Koenigswarter.[3][4] His younger sister, Marguerite de Koenigswarter, was married to André Gustave Bicart-Sée.[5]

The Koenigswarter barony had been created in 1870 by Emperor Napoleon III for his great-grandfather, Louis-Jean Koenigswarter, Deputy for the Seine.[6][7][8] His paternal grandparents were Jules Louis Maximilien Koenigswarter (son of Louis Jean Kœnigswarter) and Angelica Lea (née Franchetti) Koenigswarter, who was born in Livorno, Italy.[9] One aunt, Alice de Kœnigswarter, was married to composer Fernand Halphen, and another aunt, Hélène Joséphine Koenigswarter, was married to publisher Gaston Calmann-Lévy and, after their divorce, Marie Charles Arnaud Reynard Gilbert, Comte de Choiseul-Praslin. His cousin, Robert Calmann-Lévy, also married into the Rothschild family when he married Jacqueline de Rothschild in July 1930.[10][11]

Career

He studied at the École des Mines de Paris, becoming a civil engineer. At the outbreak of World War II, Koenigswarter joined the Free French Forces, and led troops in Africa and Europe. During the war, his children Patrick and Janka stayed with the Guggenheim family on Long Island.[1] Much of his extended family perished in the Holocaust, including his mother, who dismissed her his entreaties and instructions to escape and was murdered at Auschwitz.[1] For his efforts during the war, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Companion of the Liberation, and was made a Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur.[3]

After the war, he entered the French diplomatic service, first settling with his wife and children in Norway and then in Mexico City (where he was counselor of the French Embassy),[12] before coming to the United States in 1953 as agent general of the French government tourist office in North America.[13] They separated in 1951 and, from 1953 to 1957, he held the position of French Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States and to Canada.[3] In 1957, he became the French Ambassador to Indonesia,[14] followed by the Ambassador to Peru from 1961 to 1966.[15][16]

Koenigswarter later returned to Paris and a position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Upon his retirement, he moved to Spain where he died in 1995.[15]

Personal life

On 20 October 1930, Koenigswarter was married to Nadine Lise Raphäel (1911–1932), a daughter of Jenny (née Cahn) Raphäel and Maurice Raphäel, a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. Through her aunt Flora Raphäel, (the wife of banker David David-Weill, who was chairman of Lazard Frères), she was a first cousin of Pierre David-Weill and Jean David-Weill. They were the parents of one child before Nadine died on 13 May 1932, just twenty years old.[17]

On 15 October 1935, he was married to Kathleen Annie Pannonica "Nica" Rothschild, the youngest child of the late Charles Rothschild (a son of the 1st Baron Rothschild) and Rózsika Edle (née von Wertheimstein) Rothschild.[18] In 1937,[19] they bought and moved to the Château d'Abondant, a 17th century Château in north-west France they acquired from the family of American banker Henry Herman Harjes (who had acquired the château in 1920 from the Duchesse de Vallombrosa).[20] Together, they were the parents of:[21]

  • Baron Patrick de Koenigswarter (1936–2017), a businessman and photographer who married socialite Eva Abesamis and lived in the Philippines,[22] where he became a friend and collector of Benedicto Cabrera.[14][23]
  • Janka de Koenigswarter (b. 1938), who became the mother of Steven de Koenigswarter.[24]
  • Berit de Koenigswarter (b. 1946)[1]
  • Shaun de Koenigswarter (b. 1948)[1]
  • Kari de Koenigswarter (b. 1950)[1]

Jules and Nica separated in 1951 and after saxophonist Charlie Parker died at her apartment in the Stanhope Hotel in 1955, Koenigswarter filed for divorce, which was granted in 1956 along with custody of their three minor children. Nica continued to live on her own in New York City, where she was a patroness of the Bebop jazz community.[25]

On 15 March 1956, Baron de Koenigswarter was married to Madeleine Adrienne Emma Le Forestier in New York City. His second wife died in 1988.[26] Baron de Koenigswarter died on 15 February 1995 in Málaga, Spain.[27]

References
  1. Singer, Barry (17 October 2008). "The Baroness of Jazz". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  2. Begley, Louis (2009). Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters. Yale University Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-300-15645-4. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  3. Mosley, Charles, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 3, page 3417.
  4. Roth, Cecil (1972). Encyclopaedia Judaica: A-Z. Encyclopaedia Judaica. p. 1131. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  5. "Bottin mondain" (in French). Annuaire du commerce Didot-Bottin. 1984: 314. Retrieved 2 November 2020. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. Melville Amadeus Henry Douglas Heddle de La Caillemotte de Massue de Ruvigny Ruvigny and Raineval (9th marquis of) (1914). The Titled Nobility of Europe: An International Peerage, Or "Who's Who", of the Sovereigns, Princes and Nobles of Europe. Harrison & Sons. p. 853. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  7. Maurois, Simone (1957). Miss Howard and the Emperor. Knopf. p. VIII. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  8. "Collection of Baron Koenigswarter in Vienna, Old Master Paintings". www.gardnermuseum.org. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  9. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage. Burke's Peerage Limited. 1956. p. 1885. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  10. "Jacqueline Rebecca Louise de Rothschild (1911-2012)". family.rothschildarchive.org. Rothschild Family. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  11. Hough, Randy (July 19, 2012). "Chess Benefactor Jacqueline Piatigorsky Dies at 100". United States Chess Federation. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  12. "'Phone Repairmen' Fixes Diplomats; Box of Gems Lost". The Daily Oklahoman. 16 October 1952. p. 42. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  13. "France Appoints New Tourist Office Agent". Chicago Tribune. 19 July 1953. p. 158. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  14. "Patrick de Koenigswarter (1936-2017): Remembrance of lost art–and adopted home". Inquirer Lifestyle. 2 December 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  15. Kastin, David (2011). Nica's Dream: The Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-393-08231-9. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  16. van der Bliek, Rob (2001). The Thelonious Monk Reader. Oxford University Press. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-19-976147-0. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  17. "MISS ROTHSCHILD WILL BE WED HERE; Baron Jules de Koenigswarter of Paris Gets License to Marry London Girl. SISTER OF HEIR TO TITLE Ceremony Will Take Place This Month in the Chapel of the Municipal Building". The New York Times. 11 October 1935. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  18. "MISS ROTHSCHILD IS MARRIED. HERE; Becomes Bride of Baron Jules de Koenigswarter in Chapel of Municipal Building". The New York Times. 16 October 1935. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  19. "HISTORIC CHATEAU FIGURES IN SALE; Abondant, Famous Seigneurie Near Paris, Dates Back More Than 300 Years". The New York Times. 19 September 1937. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  20. "OLD TALES CLING TO HARJES CHATEAU; This American-Owned Building Is One of an Historic Trio in the French Riviera. MME. WALSKA ENTERTAINS Opera Star Introduces Spanish Singer Who Has Won High Praise From Paris Musicians". The New York Times. 26 January 1930. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  21. Cooke, Rachel (21 April 2012). "Hannah Rothschild on Nica: 'I saw a woman who knew where she belonged'". The Observer. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  22. Arcache, Maurice (July 17, 2019). "David Koenigswarter makes music for mom Eva Abesamis' birthday". The Philippine Star. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  23. "Society lensman de Koenigswarter dies at 81". The Manila Times. November 22, 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  24. Rothschild, Hannah (2 June 2008). "The Jazz Baroness". Jewish Quarterly. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  25. "Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, 74". The New York Times. 2 December 1988. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  26. "Koenigswarter Service". The New York Times. 10 December 1988. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  27. Provincias, Las (20 April 2014). "La baronesa que tenía el alma negra". lasprovincias.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 November 2020.
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